Washington, DC – Today marks 50 days until election day. It’s important to remind voters exactly what’s at stake in two key battleground AG races where the candidates are neck and neck—North Carolina and Pennsylvania. 

As election day approaches, voters need to keep in mind the stark differences between the Democratic AG candidates who will protect abortion access and defend democracy, and the radical GOP extremists who would take them backwards on everything from attacking reproductive health care to undermining election protections.

Here’s a rundown of the candidates and what’s at stake in these elections:

North Carolina

• The stakes of this race could not be higher. Defending democracy and standing up for all North Carolinians’ fundamental rights and freedoms are on the ballot in this AG race. 
• Two congressmen are vying for the seat of Attorney General: Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC) and Rep. Dan Bishop (R-NC). Rep. Jackson is a veteran who served in Afghanistan and still serves as a Major in the Army National Guard. He currently represents NC’s 14th district in Congress and previously served for 8 years in the state senate. Some of Rep. Jackson’s key issues are tackling the fentanyl crisis, fixing our democracy, protecting the environment, defending abortion access and LGBTQ+ rights, and properly funding law enforcement. 
• In a recent interview with PBS State Lines, Rep. Jackson said, “There are over a dozen different forms of state law enforcement and they’re not all funded in a standardized way. Some of them are really underfunded. The DMV Theft Bureau, which we rely on to help combat grand theft auto, is really underfunded. I want to be a champion for law enforcement, making sure that they’re properly paid, especially law enforcement at the state level. Look, if you want good response time, if you want to give community policing a real chance, you have to have properly funded law enforcement.” 
• Jackson’s Republican opponent, Rep. Bishop, is a far-right MAGA extremist and election denier who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Bishop was also previously in the North Carolina state assembly, where he authored the disastrous HB2 “bathroom bill” that targeted LGBTQ+ North Carolinians and cost the state billions of dollars in lost revenue and economic development. Bishop also supports a nationwide ban on abortion. Bishop continues to be a major threat to North Carolinians and is unfit for this office. 

Pennsylvania

• Pennsylvania is DAGA’s other top-tier priority. This has been a competitive seat over the last two cycles, and it is again this year. In Pennsylvania, Democrat Eugene DePasquale faces Republican Dave Sunday in the race for Attorney General.

• DePasquale has devoted his entire career to serving Pennsylvanians. In 2006, DePasquale was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and in 2012, he was elected Auditor General. During his time as Auditor General, he worked to clear the rape kit backlog to ensure victims could receive the justice they deserve. He will bring his record of protecting consumers and fighting for rights and freedoms to the office of Attorney General, and continue to defend abortion access, protect democracy, and fight for consumers.

• In a recent interview with The Keystone, DePasquale said “If a pregnant woman is fleeing one of these right-wing authoritarian states and has to come here, I’ll protect their reproductive rights as well,’ DePasquale said…‘Any data that some other state is trying to get about someone in Pennsylvania when it comes to reproductive freedom, that information will get squashed.’”

• Meanwhile, Dave Sunday, the Republican nominee for Pennsylvania AG, who is currently the elected prosecutor for York County, is an extremist who announced early on in the pandemic that his office would refuse to enforce then-Democratic Governor Tom Wolf’s closure orders for nonessential businesses and other emergency safety measures to contain the spread of COVID-19. Sunday has also spent his campaign dodging questions on abortion to obscure his true, extremist anti-abortion positions. He’s not equipped to be the leader Pennsylvanians need and will fall short of standing up for the rights and freedoms of his constituents.

Many major issues—from abortion access to democracy protection—are on the line in these races. Jackson and DePasquale will keep the people of North Carolina and Pennsylvania safe and Bishop and Sunday will drag these states backwards. 

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